Denominations are us wearing our heart on our sleeves.

Much has been written on the subject of denominations.

George Tarleton wrote the small book "Forgive us our denominations" (as we forgive those who denominate against us)

There was the Holy Spirit wisdom picture describing how instead of trying to link puddles together in a farmyard, really all that was necessary was more rain. The abundance of rainfall would then cause all small puddles to bleed together into one large pond.

I wrote to Stephen Hand, a Catholic blog writer and encourager of home schooling,apart from a few denominational people, and only a few of those proportionately, which Christian or non-Christian for that matter goes into a Christian bookshop and chooses their book by denominational tag.

Most choose by subject or author.

Who goes into a bookstore and buys a Dietrich Bonhoeffer book because he is Lutheran?

Who buys a Richard Wurmbrand book because he is Baptist?

Who even buys a Mother Teresa book to learn Catholicism?

Who even really knows or cares what denomination or not was Watchman Nee?

Who asks " Can I have something by the Lutheran Basilea Schlink?" Most outside Germany wouldn't know she was Lutheran, or even care.

By the time somebody is a 3rd leveller, the mature level described by John as the Father level in 1 John 2......WHO FRICKIN' CARES what denomination they came from ?

In this way, denominations are irrelevant. By the time God has marked His New Covenant right across someone's heart in indelible Christ Red Blood.....who is going to give much room to any label save Christ's own labelling?

So, let's work backwards. What if we dismantle all denominations? Well, can I say that us Jesus people had a mighty good go at that in the 1970s's.

But the denominations or NON label Labels still littered our landscape as fissures in the Body of Christ.

So what's going on? Most of us realise denominational banding cannot be supported by scripture. Most of us realise that they are one of the main totems to an unbelieving world that Christ cannot build His own Body here on earth....or worse still, doesn't exist at all!

Except Christ does exist. Has always existed. And continues to build His Body superbly, and ever consistantly the world over. In fact He called it the leaven of the Kingdom.

So what then are denominations? Simply this. The outer wall projections of our own divided hearts. They are the screenings of our own inner graffiti that is talked about in the Bible in Ezekiel 8:10.

You can no more dismantle a denomination, than a cinema goer can remove a film by simply punching a hole in a film screen. The light from the projector still screens the film on the next available surface.